Yunteng YT-1288 Selfie Monopod Review – Cheap Tech Review

A few days ago I was in the search for a good and sturdy selfie stick that could hold my OnePlus 3T comfortably. The OnePlus 3T is a big phone with a 5.5 inch display and to find a selfie holder big enough to clamp it was difficult, until I stumbled upon the Yunteng YT-1288. It is a wonderful cheap selfie stick that packs a couple of extra features for that low price.

The YT is pretty sturdy out of the box. Made with strong aluminium alloy, it not only feels strong in hand but is also a little heavy compared to other selfie sticks. It has a rubber hand grip that helps to hold the stick firmly without the fear of accidentally slipping or dropping it. The rubber grip itself has some weight to it which balances the weight of the phone or camera nicely.

The phone holder is the clamp type but with a tripod mount which is a great extension as I was able to hook it up with my old tripod and shoot time-lapse with my phone. This not only saved me a couple of extra bucks for the phone tripod mount, it also saved me more for an extra monopod as this selfie stick acts as one. Yes, the stick itself has a mount at the bottom that can be attached to any mini tripod and be used as a monopod. Nice.

I did attach the YT to my old 50 inch tripod and used the extra height to take overhead shots with my phone. But mind you, the weight of the phone could potentially tip the tripod over if not careful. So, using any type of camera, or even a soap box, for overhead shots is out of question, unless you attach the tripod in some way so that it doesn’t fall.

Talking about the extension length, the stick in the closed position is approximately 1.5 feet including the phone mount, which is still longer than other sticks that are much more portable. It has three levels of extensions that extend the stick to a maximum length of approximately 4.1 feet, which is more than enough to take a big group selfie. I never used it at the maximum level but it proved useful where I couldn’t zoom in with my phone camera.

Coming to camera usability, the YT comes with a bluetooth remote shutter which is an amazing addition even without the selfie stick itself. The remote shutter pairs with the smartphone easily and instantly captures photos and videos with almost zero lag between the button press and the snap. It also activates video recording too. [thumbs up]

The bluetooth remote shutter proved way more useful than the selfie stick itself. The remote charges through a micro USB cable which, fortunately, is also included in the package. I mean, could it get any more better. The remote also includes zoom-in/out buttons but they didn’t seem to work with my OnePlus 3T. They clicked the shutter rather than zooming, but they might work with some other model. It supports both Android and iOS, though I don’t have any iOS devices to test it with but I’m pretty sure it’ll work great.

Another cool little feature is the mirror selfie. It’s a small convex reflective surface just below the mount that helps to see what the camera might capture. It’s useful when using the back camera to take selfies and you can’t see the screen and don’t really know whether the camera is capturing correctly or not. It’s not the best solution, as it’s just a reflection and you don’t actually see the framing and focus but it’s still a handy feature.

So that’s all there is to the Yunteng YT-1288 Selfie Stick. It packs more than it should in a relatively low-cost, i.e. around ₹500 (~$8). I used the YT as a vlogging stick using my smartphone and successfully made a vlog video that you can watch here. The only thing to keep in mind is that there is no stabilization as it doesn’t contain a gimbal of any sort, so handshakes will be present as they are, even while using the camera handheld.

The YT-1288 is an excellent all-round selfie monopod that does more than any average selfie stick and packs a lot of features that are beneficial to someone who wants to get into photography and making YouTube videos like myself.